These Days
These Days, by 'Noxy Productions' - commonly referred to as simply 'TD' - is a gritty, urban and darkly emotional serial drama set in and around two fictitious Leicestershire towns: the urban Newben and the more widely featured suburban town of Middlehampton. Season 1 ran from January 14, 2013 - July 19, 2013. Season 2 began on September 4, 2013 and is currently still active. Noxy recently confirmed that a Season 3 had been commissioned. On the 14th January 2014 (Episode 140), the show celebrated it's 1st anniversary. On Tuesday 28th January 2014, the show aired it's first ever scripted-episode which - until the arrival of the Taylor sisters in its closing moments - was largely a two-hander between longstanding on/off lovers Lee Rogers and Rosy Lyons. As of 16th August 2013, there have been 144 episodes of the project. Formation, Style and Demise 'These Days' was first conceived as an idea in the autumn of 2001. Creator Noxy has admitted he was inspired by what he described as the 'understated and well cast' ITV soap Crossroads (2001-03) and the 'dark, intimate and emotionally charged' ITV soap opera 'Night And Day (2001-3), and conflated these two styles together to create 'These Days.' Noxy has also sighted Australian soaps 'Neighbours' and 'Home And Away' as influences on him, stating that TD has 'the warmth and family feel' of Neighbours' mixed with 'the edge and vibrancy' of Home And Away. Australian soaps also influence the style of TD in several ways: *Every episode begins with a recap of the previous episode; this is standard practice for Australian soaps but not for British ones *Inbetween scene changeovers, sets are used as breakbumpers, especially when in the context of what is coming up. For example, one scene ends, then a scene bumper shows the Doyle's restaurant set - which means the next scene will happen in Doyle's ''etc. *A 'filmic' look is used for TD, unlike British soaps which, on the whole, use standard filming *TD generally uses a middle-class set of characters with some working-class characters mixed in. It is usually the other way round in British soaps, especially evening ones Another somewhat unconventional trait of the show is its broad setting. Unlike British soaps, which are almost invariably set on one street, cul-de-sac or relatively small area (e.g. a village), TD is spread across two fictional Leicestershire towns and makes use of external sets such as a restaurant, a college and a hotel. These types of sets are not common in British soap opera. Noxy described naming the show as 'difficult'. 'It was a long time ago but I probably went through a few titles but, as is often the case with these things, as soon as I came up with the title 'These Days', I instinctively knew that's what this show was going to be called. It had a great ring to it!' he was once quoted as saying. Noxy began writing 'These Days' toward the end of 2001. He had written 9 episodes before launching it, but then suddenly stopped. 'When I looked back over the content and pacing of these 9 episodes, I didn't think they were good enough. So I redrafted them and started again. I felt deep down that 'These Days' had too much potential to get it wrong.' So the show began again a few weeks later in 2002. It ran for 12 months before ending. In 2005, a second series began, set three years after the original, and this continued in sporadic installments all the way up to 2009, when the show stalled at around Episode 210. 'I stopped writing the show because I felt I had made a mess of it', he concedes. It was going nowhere and I had just run out of steam with it. It had lost all sense of direction and so I decided to abandon it indefinitely. I don't regret doing that in any way - it was the right thing to do at the time.' Revival In August 2011, Noxy joined a creative writing website called 'Writers Express', and soon become an administrator. When the forum's founder decided to leave, Noxy asked if he could take over as Founding Admin, and was given permission to do so. In 2013, Noxy launched a revamped version of 'These Days' from scratch. 'Apart from a few tweaks here and there, this second incarnation of the show's first series was largely faithful to the original until about Episode 40', he explains. At that point, I could see that a lot of the original first series wouldn't be strong enough to stand up in 2013, and I had begun to come up with new ideas and new directions to take various characters and stories in. So from that point on, only a small but significant amount of original material was used; the majority of it was totally new.' Premise 'These Days' is set across two fictional Leicestershire towns - the urban Newben, and the suburban and more wideley used Middlehampton. They are in the vicinity of Leicester but neither is a fictional form of that city, as Leicester itself is occasionally mentioned in the series as a seperate but nearby location. There are several distinctive landmarks in the show which are instantly familiar to fans. These include the following: *''Doyle's - a local restaurant run by Liz Doyle, with Joss Wykin a waitress there *''Lee's shop'' - a newsagents run by Lee Rogers, with Noah Donnelly as his shop assistant *''Hotel Republic'' (formerly The Blue Royale) - a chain hotel run by Steven and Hannah Cowell. Chandra Patel is a receptionist; Marcus Harby a security guard; Todd Chambers a handyman; and Bezza a porter *''Restaurant Republic'' - hotel restaurant run by Sabrina Patel *''The Moonshine Inn'' - a pub run by James Warren, with Lisa Hopkins and Anita Johnson as managers *''Linford Park'' - a more recent location; a public park somewhere in Middlehampton *''The garage'' - run by mechanics Jack Mason and Steph Donnelly, with Kenzo Wykin as a mechanic *''Newben College ''- a tertiary education facility *''Rendezvous'' - a small student cafe within the college, frequented by students Carrie Donnelly, Liam Hardacre and Tegan Wykin Other locations featured include Newben District Hospital; a cafe called The Hut on Castle Bridge (an area which links the two towns by road); and the modelling agency, which is now defunct. In August 2013, it was announced that the college is to be expanded as a set, and will become a regular rather than a recurring set. Title Card SEASON 1 The show's first title card uses the words 'These' (white) and 'Days' (red) using the Euphemia font, spread across the upper-centre of the card against a pitch-black background. SEASON 2 The show's second and current title card (see top) is the same except a blue-hued, out-of-focus background picture of Leicester now sits in the background. It has been said that this concotion of red, white and blue gives the show a 'British feel', which Noxy observes could be part of its success. 'It works for Tesco!' he jokes. Awards The show has been critically acclaimed from the outset, and has won 30 WRIXAS (Writers Express Awards) to date, more than any other project in the forum's history, 16 more than its nearest rival and the first project ever to reach 30 awards. On 8th September 2013, it was named 'Best Soap' for the sixth consecutive occasion. The full list of accolades includes: • BEST SOAP (six times in a row) • BEST (SOAP) EPISODE (#27, #75, #100, #131 & #144) • BEST RELATIONSHIP - Glisa (Glen & Lisa) • BEST CAMEO, NEWCOMER OR RETURNEE - Rosy Lyons (Returnee) • BEST EXIT (twice) - Sarah Reuban, Ben Warren • BEST SOAP MALE (thrice) - Ben Warren (twice-in-a-row), Glen Wright • BEST SOAP FEMALE (thrice) - Lisa Hopkins (twice); Rosy Lyons • BEST NEWCOMER - Ben Warren, Hannah Cartwright, Sabrina Patel • BEST SOAP SCENE - Steven & Ricki's Bittersweet Airport Goodbye; Rachel Hornby's Death; Holly Wainwright's Death • BEST SOAP PLOT - Ben Warren's Fatal Meltdown; Spikegate • BEST SHOCK - Ben Hastens Rosemary's Death With A Heart Attack Present Cast Cast Changes